Between De Nang and Hoi An, there are a few limestone outcroppings, called the Marble mountains.  The region is not mountainous and these kind of seem out of place but such is the will of mother nature.  I went to the largest of the outcrops called Huy Thuy Son, which was full of Pagodas, Caves and vistas of the surrounding beach area.  I wandered around for a few hours and took a few photos.  There were so many carvings, statues and pagodas interlaced with caves and beautiful greenery. It was a really cool place to visit and I am glad I got to see it.

After leaving the marble mountain, it was time to experience the famous Hai Van Pass which was made even more famous by an episode of Top Gear (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1zfuBgCUqY).  The famous beach town of De Nang was just before the pass, but we decided to skip it as it seemed like jut another big beach town.  There were tons of fancy resorts and beutiful white sand beaches.  The pass was only a few km outside of De Nang and so the adventure continued.  The pass itself is about 21km long and every second of it was breathtaking. Many pictures were taken and the view did not disappoint.  We were able to stop a few times for photos and overall it was a beautiful drive.  After the pass it was onwards to Hue, the old capital of Vietnam.

I arrived at my hostel in Hue and immediately met two people from Montreal in the lobby, Melanie and Alex.  We chatted while my room was being prepared and hit it off pretty quickly.  They mentioned that they were meeting some friends for dinner and asked me if I wanted to join.  The rest of my crew had some logistical problems and were still south in Hoi An, so I was solo for the evening and thought that sounded lovely.  We met up with their friends (Scotty and Audrey) who had been living in the bay area for the past 6 years and were also traveling South to North, so there were a lot of things to talk about.  After our french inspired dinner (I got chicken stew) we went to a bar for a few drinks.  The localized beer brands continued as Hue was serving Huda beer everywhere, which is owned by Carlsburg but seemed to be brewed locally.  It was a another crappy lager but I think better than the Quy Ahn beer we had a few towns back.

The next morning the same crew decided to go to the Imperial palace and check out the sites of the city.  I got up early for a run but my legs were not feeling very well at all, so only ended up doing 6km.  However, that meant that the run ended a little short, so I had some time to chill before the others were ready.

We set out for the Imperial palace and paid the 150,000 dong ($8) entrance ticket, which is pretty high for vietnam and went about exploring the palace grounds.  I was actually surprised that the palace was only from the 1800’s although due to the war had been rebuilt and renovated several times in the last 50 years.  The grounds were Massive and there were plenty of “Basic” instagram photo ops available, which we took advantage of. We wondered around and took in all of the history and sites and then headed back to the city area for some food.

We headed back to the hotel, and had some chill time before heading out for the evening.  We went to one of the cheap places around the corner and decided that we would wait to get a Bahn Me from the really delicious cart around the corner.  The night ended pretty early as has been pretty common in my old age, but it would give me the opportunity to wake up early and go for a long run.

I woke up early and headed out on a planned 20+km run and I decided to run along the river into the citadel grounds and then run the interior perimeter of the citadel.  As I mentioned before, this place is massive, so it wasn’t that hard to get the millage.  I did have to do a few extra loops to get up to 25km, but it worked out pretty well.  I’ve gotten pretty good at running on the streets and have gotten a good feel for the motorbikes as to not have any problems.  My legs have not been feeling that great though, so although the millage has not been a problem, for some reason the speed has suffered.  I finished my run and it felt ok, but not great although I am just happy that I have been able to keep up the once a week long runs while I have been away.  I feel like the evenings have not been super late, which have allowed me to wake up early and get runs in when I need to.  If you are interested in more details about my runs follow me on Strava (https://www.strava.com/athletes/mseliske)

The rest of my crew continued to have logistical issues and I wanted to make sure I made it to Ha Long bay at the end of my trip, so it was time to say goodbye to the crew and head north on my own.  We said out goodbyes and had one final beer before I departed. It was time to head towards the next destination which was the caverns of Phong Nha National Park. About 200km north.